


Horizon

by dorwinionwhining



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Second Age, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22419583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorwinionwhining/pseuds/dorwinionwhining
Summary: Elrond stands by Gil-galad's side for centuries. This is just one small moment.
Relationships: Elrond & Gil-galad
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on a bad day to cheer myself up. I'm still not sure about posting it because I really don't know if the character voices are strong enough or good enough, but it also seems silly to just let it sit in my notes. I hope at least someone out there enjoys it.

"I always used to wish there was an adventure out there rather than an inevitability."

Elrond looked up from where he'd been tracing the path of his own footsteps and saw Gil-galad standing on the cliff's edge overlooking the sea. His face was aglow with the light of the setting sun and a storm gathered in the depth of his silver eyes.

He was dressed in simple attire, and Elrond knew at a glance that he'd come up to this place to hide, out in the open where somehow no one ever bothered to look. It stirred at some of Elrond's deepest memories, the ones of afternoons with Elros and his mother, sitting with legs dangling over a different cliff entirely, now long lost to the waves, her grip around each of their wrists ironclad as they'd both leaned out a little too far, eagerly watching for sails on the horizon.

Elrond remembered the three of them spending hours like that, alone together, playacting a simple family with simple cares.

So when he reached Gil-galad's side Elrond took his hand in his own and laced their fingers together.

"Inevitability?" he asked.

Gil-galad turned and stared at him, his stormy eyes gone wide. For a brief moment his hand lay limply in Elrond's, and then all at once it came to life and squeezed, tightening until it was rock solid and warm. He breathed in and out several times, each exhale visible as his chest rose and fell against the fabric of his shirt. "Isn't that what it is?" he asked at long last, eyes narrowing back down as intensity filled them. "One way or another, all of us will end up there." He turned back to the horizon with a nod, and his jaw was tight. 

Elrond drew in a breath of his own, the cold, wet air sticking in his throat and the smell of salt filling his nostrils. "I can't bring myself to think of it like that," he said. "If I do, all of our actions are useless, and there's no point in doing anything." In his mind, the future stretched out like long, shadowed fingers, grasping at his sense of himself and threatening to pull him down into dark waters, never to resurface.

He drew in another breath, focusing on the warmth of Gil-galad's hand in his own. "I can't live life merely waiting for time to overtake me."

Gil-galad scoffed, caught for a moment longer in his melancholy. Below them, another set of waves crashed up against the cliff, and far away against the horizon the last rays of the sun slipped out of sight, swallowed by the sea.

Then, between one moment and the next, Gil-galad smiled, the expression breaking over his face, soft and tremulous.

His eyes fluttered closed, and his lips pressed together. His thumb stroked a long line down the back of Elrond's hand.

"You always know exactly what to say," he said.

Elrond smiled back, grateful. "Not always," he denied, keeping his tone light. "But hopefully often enough to make a difference."

Gil-galad's eyes cracked open, and his smile widened.

Above them, the sky rapidly changed colors, shifting in minutes from bright orange to deep blue. Despite the thawing of his countenance, Gil-galad still seemed frozen where he stood, so Elrond tugged a little at their joined hands and said, "Come, let's sit together and watch the stars appear."

Gil-galad sighed.

"We should go back," he hedged, but Elrond tugged again, and he sunk down onto the ledge, folding his legs and allowing himself to lean against Elrond's side.

Elrond tucked his chin against the top of his head, feeling the last dregs of Gil-galad's tension seeping out of him into the stone below. "We'll go back soon enough," he said. "Anyone who's looking for us can stand to look a little longer."

"Thank you," Gil-galad murmured.

Cresting over the horizon, a solitary star gleamed.


End file.
